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Recently a bill passed the House, which would give statehood to DC, except for a few core areas including the White House. This would mean that the president and his family would control three electoral votes all by themselves.

Does this proposals, or other similar DC-statehood proposals, offer any way to prevent that?

(House Resolution 51 suggested an expedited repeal of the Twenty Third Amendment, but altering the constitution is not easy, and until that could happen, my question would be relevant.)

Rodrigo de Azevedo
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Joshua Fox
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    It would have to be a spectacularly poor piece of legislative change to devolve DCs 3 electoral votes onto the remnant of Federal land post statehood. – Jontia Sep 21 '20 at 11:38
  • @jontia Correct. So I wonder what the proponents of this bill, or similar measures, would say about this question. – Joshua Fox Sep 21 '20 at 12:00
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    "This would mean that the president and his family would control three electoral votes all by themselves": The president and family vote in their state of domicile, not in the District of Columbia. Taking up temporary residence in (or near) the district for the purpose of undertaking one's duties as an elected federal officer does not deprive one of one's status as a resident of one's state of domicile. If it did, every member of congress who lived outside of the mid-Atlantic region would be limited to one term. – phoog Sep 21 '20 at 17:28

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According to Wikipedia the latest statehood bill passed by the House did cover this area;

The Washington, D.C. Admission Act would create the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth (named after Frederick Douglass), with two Senators and one Representative, and a smaller federal district, known as the "Capital", inside of it. The House would be expanded by one member until the next census reapportionment at which point DC would get the number of representatives determined by their population. The District of Columbia delegate would be repealed. Any residents of the Capital would vote in their state of last residence. The bill would exclude the Capital from the process for counting electors and set up an expedited process for repealing the 23rd Amendment.[32]

The full text of the Resolution is available here, the relevant portions are sections 223 and 224;

SEC. 223. REPEAL OF LAW PROVIDING FOR PARTICIPATION OF SEAT OF GOVERNMENT IN ELECTION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.

SEC. 224. EXPEDITED PROCEDURES FOR CONSIDERATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT REPEALING 23RD AMENDMENT.

I've trimmed the text of these sections because as is common with government communication the world over they refer to other pieces of legislation without context, but they would hinge on the first section of the 23rd amendment

23rd Amendment

Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:

And essentially make "Congress direct" them not to appoint electors, that would be section 223 of the HR 51 bill until they get around to removing the original amendment via section 224.

Jontia
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  • "Create the state of Washington"? But don't we already have a state of Washington? Maybe an East Washington, like we have a West Virginia? – jamesqf Sep 21 '20 at 16:56
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    @jamesqf "Washington, Douglass Commonwealth" retaining the DC as noted here – Jontia Sep 21 '20 at 17:04